What is our environmental footprint?

1. Write a definition of the term environmental footprint:

2. Draw an outline of your footprint below. You then need to cut out pictures from magazines and newspapers or draw what things you think make up your footprint.

Measure Your Impact

1. You need to write down eight activities and record what resources are used. Activities may cover catching a bus, brushing teeth, getting dressed, eating lunch, and playing sport to name a few.

2. You also need to record what resources were used to undertake the activity. The resources include water, energy or waste produced.

3. You then need to estimate how much of the resource you used and write down the number 1, 2 or 3 in the usage boxes. Use the following guide:

Length of Activity	Usage	Score
Less than 10 minutes	Low	1
11 minutes – 1 hour	Medium	2
Over 1 hour	High	3

For example if you only had the television on for 30 minutes the resource used would be medium however if you had the television on for three hours it would be high. We have included an example below to get you started!

Activity	Resources	Low Usage	Medium Usage	High Usage
Brush my teeth	water	1








Subtotals (add up each column and write the subtotals in the boxes
TOTAL SCORE (add up all of the subtotals)

How do you rate?

10 -15 Friendly Flea

16 -20 Careful Kangaroo

21 -30 Dumping Dinosaur

How could you improve your score?

What changes could you make to your daily activities at school and in the home to improve your score? Use the table below to write down ways of using less energy, using less water and making less waste.

Use Less Energy	Use Less Water	Use Less Waste

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples footprints - a historical perspective

Despite Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples having lived in Australia for at least 50,000 years, there is little evidence of an environmental footprint, other than where they managed country using fire. They had only a few belongings mostly consisting of tools, items of cultural importance, some clothing depending on how cold it was and woven bags and baskets. They owned few things that couldn’t be carried and consisted of items made from rocks, wood and from plant and animal materials. While they had few belongings they did have an extremely rich culture that had blossomed over the tens of thousands of years.

Think about the way we currently live compared with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples prior to colonisation.

Energy

How do we currently generate energy for things like heating and cooking?

2. Are you aware of any impacts of the ways that we currently generate energy?

3. How might this compare to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples prior to colonisation?

Waste

What types of waste do we create in our daily lives?

2. What might be some of the impacts of this waste? TIP: Think about the materials our waste is made from (e.g. plastic, metal or glass).

3. How might this compare to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples prior to colonisation?

Water

Where do we get our water from?

2. How do we currently carry our water around? What waste can this create?

3. How might this compare to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples prior to colonisation?

Reflection

Complete the thinking routine below.

I used to think...
But now I think...

What's my footprint?

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